Charlottesville Placemaking
CharlottesvillePlacemaking_AreWeSustainable (click PDF -large)
Spring 2013
Team members: Xiangyu Chen, Robert D’agostino, Sarah Holisinger, Margaret Nersten, Sonad Uygur
As a team, we are working with the city of Charlottesville’s PLACE Task Force Team in order to identify and analyze sustainable places throughout the City of Charlottesville. This analysis will help determine how the existing urban fabric can influence future planning decisions. We are specifically looking at the Venable, 10th and Page, and Rose Hill neighborhoods. Through the compilation of maps and photos that show the current state of these neighborhoods, we will be able to show, in detail, what areas need to change or stay the way they are. Specifically, we are going to look at three existing themes: Block size, Residential and Commercial Building Density, and Transportation (public transportation systems, bike routes, and walkability features). These three themes will be looked at for different parts of the neighborhoods, whether it is schools, commercial areas, community centers, and certain residential intersections. A major objective of our project is to show how “accessible” Charlottesville is. This means that we would like to show how someone can get to different parts of Charlottesville, and how easy/hard it is in existing neighborhoods. For example, we are looking at how long it takes for a person to get to a bus stop in or around their residence, and then how long it takes for that person to get to the University, commercial area, or supermarket. Through this analysis people will be able to clearly see what areas of Charlottesville are more accessible. Two other maps will be created that show the block size and building/population density. By making these maps for five different areas in our neighborhoods, comparisons will be visible. These comparisons will show what types of blocks work in different areas. For example, a dense and large block may not work if it blocks routes between two places, but this type of block could be beneficial if it acts as a barrier between two distinct places.
Up to this point we have accomplished our objectives. With our transportation, block size, and building density maps, we have discovered where sustainable places exist within the City of Charlottesville. By looking at each areas analysis we discovered that there are certain places throughout the city that have more accessibility than others.